New partnership between on-road, off-road OEMs announced

Korean motorcycle manufacturer Hyosung has announced a new partnership with an American off-road vehicle manufacturer.

That off-road manufacturer, ATK Motorcycles, has built more than 15,000 motorcycles and ATVs in the past 25 years out of its Salt Lake City, Utah, location.

Taekwon Kim, the CEO of Hyosung, also known as S&T Motors, said during the EICMA show announcement that the partnership is a natural fit for both companies. “By joining forces, we believe we can strengthen our distribution network, reduce our production costs, spread development costs and substantially accelerate our entry into the street bike business,” Kim said in a press release. “We also look forward to sharing some of our off-road technology.”

Frank White of ATK said, “There will be some differentiation between S&T-branded products and the ATK-branded products.

“S&T will send parts from Korea and we will integrate those with our own American and European parts,” White said. “These American-Utah assembled motorcycles will be targeted to be sold through a select group of Harley-Davidson dealers.”

White noted the Harley-Davidson Motor Co. is not involved in this new partnership.